1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus formed in a manner that a tube and a cable are connected to a recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known an image recording apparatus in an ink jet method that records an image on a recording medium by jetting ink onto the recording medium based on an input signal. As for the ink jet method, there have been known a method of guiding ink to an actuator such as a piezoelectric element or an electrostrictive element provided in a recording head and jetting an ink droplet from a nozzle by bend of the actuator in accordance with an input signal, and a method of pressurizing and jetting an ink droplet by using local boiling of ink by a heat generating element.
A recording head in the ink jet method is mounted on, for example, a carriage to reciprocate in a constant direction across a recording medium such as a recording paper. A driving force is transmitted to the carriage from a drive source such as a motor, and the carriage is guided by a guide shaft and a guide rail to thereby reciprocate in the constant direction. In the above reciprocation of the carriage, ink droplets are selectively jetted onto the recording medium from the recording head and an image is recorded by the ink droplets that land on the recording medium.
Ink is supplied to the recording head from an ink cartridge or the like, and as a method of supplying ink in the above, a method to use a tube exists. The tube is a channel for making ink flow to the recording head from an ink cartridge provided at a position different from the recording head, and has sufficient flexibility in order to follow the reciprocation of the carriage.
Further, in the carriage, a control board controlling the operation of the recording head is provided. The above control board is operated based on a signal to be output from a main board provided in the image recording apparatus. The control board and the main board are connected by a flexible•flat•cable (FFC) to enable an electric signal to be transmitted/received therebetween. The above FFC also has sufficient flexibility in order to follow the reciprocation of the carriage.
There is sometimes a case that in the image recording apparatus, test printing is performed at the time of the image recording apparatus being manufactured or before shipment. In the test printing, ink is supplied to the recording head through the tube and a test pattern is practically printed on a recording paper. After the test printing, a dummy ink cartridge is installed in the image recording apparatus so that the ink does not leak from the tube after shipment.
The previously described dummy ink cartridge is hardly necessary to be used after an ink cartridge having ink stored therein is practically installed in the image recording apparatus and the image recording apparatus is started to be used. Thus, a user often discards the dummy ink cartridge after starting to use the image recording apparatus. Such a part to be discarded probably results in a waste of resources or an environmental impact, so that such a part is desirably reduced as much as possible. Further, even though the ink used for the test printing remains in the tube, when the user starts to use the image recording apparatus, there is a high possibility that the ink remaining in the tube already deteriorates. Thus, when the user starts to use the image recording apparatus, the ink remaining in the tube is discarded. In order to reduce the environmental impact, it is also desirable to reduce an amount of discarded ink as above as much as possible.